OGame.US Game Rules

The following points are valid for all of the universes listed at OGame.us. If you are in doubt of any of the points below or you have been banned, please contact your Game Operator on IRC or through our ticket system. Please note that for data confidentiality reasons, complaints and inquiries regarding particular accounts will only be discussed with their owners.

This thread includes all OGame.us rules and clarifications. These rules should permit players to enjoy fair gameplay within their universes.

Accounts

The owner of a game account is the owner of the Lobby account where the game account is located.
Each account is entitled to be played by a single player at any time, account sitting being the only exception.
Game account exchanges are only permitted using the ‘Account Gifting’ function within a Lobby account.
Lobby account exchanges are not permitted.

OGame.us Clarifications:

Account giveaways and takeovers are now done entirely by players within their own Lobby accounts. The person giving an account away uses the Generate Gifting Code function in the Lobby and gives the code to the new owner, who uses the Enter Code function in his own Lobby to take the account over.

It is not permitted to give your Lobby account's login information to another player; if you do so, we will be unable to offer you support in the event that anything happens to your game accounts as a result.

In October 2018, many OGame.us universes were merged into other universes. In some cases, this resulted in players having more than one account in a single universe. If this happened to you, you may play both accounts until January 31, 2019, but the accounts may not have any contact at all. This means that you may not trade resources or moonshots between the two accounts, you may not ACS defend one account with the other account, you may not fly ACS attack missions together with both accounts, and you may not attack one account with the other account for any reason. In addition, you may not circumvent the "no trading" rule by trading resources from Account A to Player B, and then having Player B trade to Account C, where Accounts A and C both belong to you. If you have contact between accounts that ended up in the same universe due to the merge, both accounts will be permanently banned. The account trade function is operational now, and you will have to give the extra accounts away before February 1, 2019; you will only be permitted to control one account per universe, and any remaining multi-accounts will receive permanent bans after January 31, 2019.

Multi Accounts

Every player is allowed to control a single account per universe. If two or more accounts are usually, occasionally, or permanently being played from the same network (e.g. schools, universities, internet cafés) it is highly recommended to notify a Game Operator in advance at ogame.support.gameforge.com/us.

OGame.us Clarifications:

If you and another player in the same universe live together or play on the same network/IP address for any reason, either temporarily or permanently, you must notify a Game Operator through our ticket system.

If you share a network/IP address with another player in the same universe, you may trade resources using approved trade ratios, be in the same alliance, ACS defend each other, or fly in ACS attacks against another player together. You may not attack each other for any reason.

If you share a network/IP address with another player in the same universe, each player may only control his or her own account, from his or her own device, and neither player is permitted to play the other player's account.

Account Sitting

Account sitting enables a player to allow another player to ‘sit’ their account, i.e. caretake it in their stead.
An account may be sat for a maximum of 48 hours.
Account sitting is only allowed through the sitting token system, available in the Lobby.
While the account is being sat, it cannot carry out attacks on enemy players.
Sharing your Lobby credentials with another player is not permitted and can result in the permanent blocking of a Lobby account for account sharing.

OGame.us Clarifications:

You must use the "Generate sitting code" function in your Lobby, located in the top right corner of your game screen, within the dropdown menu next to your email address. Your account sitter then gets into your account using the "Enter sitting code" function located in the same dropdown menu. You are not permitted to give your Lobby login details to another player. If you do so, we will not be able to support you in terms of getting your Lobby back if it is taken out of your control.

Bashing

You are not allowed to attack any given planet or moon owned by an active player more than 6 times in a 24-hour period. This rule also applies to moon destruction missions. Probe attacks and interplanetary missile attacks do not count towards the bashing rule, except for universes that include active plundering with espionage probes.
Bashing is only allowed when your alliance is at war with another alliance. The war must be announced on the relevant OGame board, in the correct forum and it must comply with the forum-specific rules.
A bashing investigation will only proceed if a player is reported.

Attacking fleets that are completely destroyed do not count towards the bashing limit.

Probe attacks in universes that have espionage probe storage enabled (Universe 1, Oberon, Quaoar, and Uriel) do count towards bashing regardless of the amount of resources that were stolen or the amount of probes sent in the attack.

Nusakan is a chaos universe, so it has no bashing limit.

Pegasus has a bashing limit of 12 attacks in a 24-hour period.

Every universe in OGame.us, other than Nusakan and Pegasus, has a bashing limit of 6 attacks in a 24-hour period, as described above.

Thanks Dramatiqa for my awesome siggy

The post was edited 15 times, last by Queen Leo: Edited to reflect the change to in-game rules made by Gameforge on February 15, 2019 in regard to bashing investigations. (Feb 16th 2019, 8:09pm).

Pushing

No account is allowed to obtain an unfair profit from the resources of a lower-ranked account. Pushing is defined as, but not only limited to, the following: resources sent from a lower-ranked account to a higher-ranked one with nothing tangible in return.
Setting up a battle to enable a higher-ranked account to obtain profit from a lower-ranked account or manipulating trade ratios for a higher-ranked account to gain an advantage through a lower ranked account are considered an unfair profit.
For all exceptions (bounties, etc.) a Game Operator should be informed via the ticket system.

OGame.us Clarifications:

All trades, recycling help, and ACS splits must be completed within 72 hours; if you need extra time to complete a trade, you must inform a Game Operator of the reason and request for additional time, using the ticket system.

Trade ratios must be between 3/2/1 and 2/1/1; trades outside of those ratios will be considered pushing. (For example, if you buy deuterium from a player at 3/2/1, you will pay 3 metal OR 2 crystal for each 1 deuterium.)

If you have been banned for pushing, you will need to send the amount of resources that you were pushed to a Game Operator. If you are not contacted and told how much to send and where, please contact your Game Operator through the ticket system to find out.

Higher-ranked players may give free moonshots to lower-ranked players, and the lower-ranked players may keep the debris, but if a lower-ranked player is providing moonshots to a higher-ranked player, the higher-ranked player must pay for the cost of the moonshot using ratios between 3/2/1 and 2/1/1.

It is recommended that you submit a ticket anytime a lower-ranked player is transporting resources to a higher-ranked player, even if it's just for recycling help or an ACS split. Doing so may prevent you from being banned.

Players may only receive an ACS split if the ships contributed had a significant impact on the outcome of the battle. In other words, sending 1 large cargo to a big fight is not sufficient to warrant a portion of the profits.

If you unexpectedly receive resources from a lower-ranked player, you are not permitted to keep them. It is your responsibility to return the resources to the player that sent them, and to notify a Game Operator of the attempted push. If you do not notify us, and you keep the resources, you will be banned.

Nusakan is a chaos universe, so pushing is permitted.

Edited to reflect the change to the in-game rules made by Gameforge in regard to bashing investigations. ~Queen Leo

Bugusing / Scripting

Using a bug for anyone's profit intentionally or not reporting a bug intentionally is strictly forbidden. Using a program as an interface between the player and the game is prohibited. Any other form of automatically generated information created for malicious misuse is forbidden as well. Exceptions are listed in the forum of the game.

OGame.us Clarifications:

Examples of bugusing include, but are not limited to, the following:

Causing an intentional lag to a player or on the servers in any fashion is not permitted.

Using any method to prevent a player from sending, recalling, or slowing his fleet is not permitted. One example of this is espionage missions that reach the planet or moon that is under attack within the last 5 seconds of the attack.

Attempting to circumvent the function of the sensor phalanx by spamming a single location with missions is not permitted. However, the following is permitted.

The defender is permitted to send an unlimited number of his own fleets to one of his own planets, in order to fill the phalanx.

The defender may ask up to 4 other players to send up to 10 fleets each to the defender's location, in order to fill the phalanx. The 4 other players must all be in the defender's alliance, and must have been members of the alliance for at least 72 hours prior to the phalanx-filling mission.

The maximum number of fleets at that location will be 40 from other players, plus all of the defender's own fleets.

It is the responsibility of each player to ensure that he does not exceed the maximum number of fleets; if more than 10 fleets are sent from 1 player, or more than 40 from the combined 4 players, this will be considered bugusing.

Your player name and planet and moon names must not be insulting or offensive. If they are deemed to be offensive by the game team, they will be changed and/or you will be warned or banned, depending on the severity of the infraction.

Offensive alliance content will be removed, and the founder may be warned or banned, depending on the severity of the infraction.

Anything intended to saturate another player's interface is not permitted; this includes, but is not limited to, spamming personal messages, probe spam, overview spam, and advertising other games or other content in-game.

If you are found to be sending or posting offensive messages, insults, or spam, your content may be censored, or you may be given a temporary or permanent ban, depending on the severity of the infraction.

Language

The game's publisher reserves the right to exclude players who are not able to speak the game's respective native language (e.g. in the game, forum, and official IRC chat rooms). Other permitted languages will be listed in the official game forum.

OGame.us Clarifications:
The only acceptable language in public areas at OGame.us is English. All personal messages, alliance applications, and external alliance content must be written in English. Internal alliance content may be written in non-English, but it must not violate any of the other rules (insults, swearing, etc.).

Breach of the rules

Any kind of breach of the rules will be punished with warnings up to permanent ban of the account. The corresponding Game Operators decide the type and duration of punishments and are contact persons for bans.

OGame.us Clarifications:

If you have been banned for something, and you wish to discuss it with a Game Operator, you must open a support ticket. Discussing bans on the OGame.us forum is not permitted, and the game team will be unable to help you unless you put in a ticket.

Attempting to obtain personal profit from a game team's decision is not permitted.

Impersonating game team or board team members is not permitted.

Using any means to attempt to obtain another player's personal information or login information is not permitted.

Exceptions

The game's community management reserves the right to have exceptions to these rules. In special cases (e.g. during events) game rules can be changed or suspended. The user group concerned will be informed when and if this is the case.

OGame.us Clarifications:

The use of a proxy, VPN, or any other method of hiding a player's identity in the game interface is forbidden.

The use of a proxy for the purpose of being able to create a link between the game and the player in cases where it would not be possible to connect to the game in any other way is permitted only with prior permission from the game team. A support ticket must be submitted, and permission granted as soon as possible, or you risk a ban of your account. This includes regular use as well as emergency use.

Support

Contact our support team for any problems you may have relating to the game. Report issues as soon as you can, so we can offer you the best possible support. We can only provide support for issues which arose during the last 3 months.

OGame.us Clarifications:

To contact a Game Operator, log in to the support system using the email address on your account. If your ticket is not submitted under your account's email address, we will not be able to assist you. Use a separate ticket for each issue.

Bans and account-specific information are only discussed with the owner of the email on the account; we are unable to discuss these matters with anyone else, so please don't ask.

Do not contact your Game Operator on IRC to discuss your ban; we will be able to help you with ban-related issues only through the support system.

If you are banned, submit a ticket; it may take up to 48 hours for your Game Operator to respond to you. If your ticket does not receive a reply within 48 hours, contact your Super Game Operator. If your Super Game Operator does not respond within 48 hours, contact a Game Admin.

You must follow the chain of command when using the support system. The normal hierarchy is Game Operator, Super Game Operator, Game Admin. Members of the game team may move tickets to the next level, but you may not demand that your ticket be sent straight to the Game Admins, without first going through the Game Operator and Super Game Operator.

If you have a problem with a Dark Matter purchase, or another billing-related question, you will need to open a Billing Support Ticket. The game team will not be able to help you with those questions, and if you submit a regular ticket for a billing-related problem or question, we will have to refer you to Billing Support instead.